BREAKING NEWS: Hot on the heels of the proposed US$17.6 billion (£13.09bn) sale of Vegas heavy-hitters Caesars Entertainment comes news that MGM Resorts, another Sin City giant, is being wooed for US$18 billion (£13.38bn).
Hollywood billionaire publisher and moghul Barry Diller of People Inc.–the conglomerate behind People Magazine–has tabled an U$18 billion takeover bid for MGM Resorts, best known to British punters as the owners of the storied Bellagio and Mandalay Bay casinos – and joint owners–with the UK’s Entain–of online iGaming outfit BetMGM, it emerged today.
MGM shares rocketed by over 13 percent, an all-time five-year high, on the news in early morning trading on the NYSE.
S&P 500 MGM reported US$2.4 billion Adjusted EBITDA (£1.78bn) in its Full Year 2025 accounts.
Largest Media Publisher
People Inc., which owns a slew of some 40 entertainment and celebrity magazine and media brands, as well as its eponymous “People” magazine, is the largest media publisher in the United States with an estimated total readership of some 175 million people.
It already owns a 26.1 percent stake in casino and entertainment leviathan MGM Resorts International
According to highly-placed sources, Diller is determined to focus his enterprise on gambling and publishing, as part of his economic strategy of riding the AI wave – despite slipping visitor numbers to the world’s most famous betting hub.
In a letter to the MGM Resorts Board, People Inc. has offered an all-cash bid of US$48.30-per-share, representing a premium of 10.6 percent on MGM’s last closing price.
Rare Business
Diller, who sits on the MGM Board, has “recused” himself from negotiations, reported the UK’s financial paper of record The Financial Times today.
“We began investing in MGM nearly six-years-ago because we believed it represented a rare kind of business: one with real-world assets that AI cannot easily replicate,” Diller told the FT on Monday.
MGM has a dominant 40 percent share of the hallowed Vegas Strip, owning or operating 10 major casinos, among them: Bellagio, ARIA Resort & Casino
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, and Park MGM Las Vegas.
Just last week, billionaire casino owner and current U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Tilman Fertitta struck a US$17.6 billion deal to buy MGM’s arch rival Caesars Entertainment through his Fertitta Entertainment group.
And Bally’s Corp., another major Vegas and U.S. casino resort playmaker, is also currently negotiating to buy Britain’s troubled evoke group through its Athens, Greece-based Bally’s Intralot for a knock-down £260 million (US$349.7m).
